Bird Strike Committee Proceedings

 

Title

Birds and Flight Safety Awareness in the Middle East and Africa – A Test Case

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

August 2001

In order to significantly and effectively advance the issues of flight safety and the conflict with birds we believe that we must work simultaneously on five levels:
· The experimental-research level- to provide a solid scientific basis for the actions taken.
· The application level -To assimilate and apply the conclusions of the basic research in daily actions (the yearly activity both at the CTR and throughout the entire airspace).
· The building of data bases and continuous analysis of the effectiveness of actions taken as well as analysis of changing population sizes over time.
· Continuous development of new and efficient methods of advancing solutions to the conflict.
· Increasing awareness - Long-term and continuous exposure to this issue must be given to all factors involved in flight, operations, decision makers, and the general public in order to involve them in commitment to take action.
It is precisely at the fifth level that continuous action is often lacking or almost completely absent. We will present our achievements in this area vis-à-vis the Israeli Air Force over the past two decades as a model for perennial activities in the area of safety. Our activities created a change in methods for dealing with this issue throughout the IAF at all levels from squadron technician to the IAF commander. As a model for successful decision-making we will present the assimilation of the use of border collies on large IAF bases, from the moment that the idea was presented at the last BSC conference in Vancouver about two years ago by Dr. Nicholas Carter and up to the present. We will also highlight the great importance of advancing solutions for bird-plane conflict through efficient development of activities on the regional level in the Middle East and in cooperation with African countries. Such activities have been initiated over the past two years in order to advance this issue in countries where it has been dealt with on a limited level.